


Memories of better days

by RunningRiver



Category: RWBY
Genre: Emercury, F/M, Gen, Gunshot, Hurt/Comfort, brief mention of past trauma in chapter 2, heed the tags i’m not kidding, someone is shot in the shoulder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:28:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29176443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunningRiver/pseuds/RunningRiver
Summary: Emerald is happy. She’s been free from Salem for months and she doesn’t regret leaving. But she still wishes there was someone else with her
Relationships: Mercury Black/Emerald Sustrai
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	1. chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> please heed the tags. I’m not kidding. Nothing graphic is described but it does happen. Go read them now

Emerald felt good. Better than ever, in fact. She couldn’t remember ever feeling this free. It had been a few months since she had agreed to leave with JNOR on that whale, and she was starting to feel like part of the team. For the first time in a long time, she could do what she wanted, free from judgement or fear of death at the hand of Salem.

And yet...she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing. Someone, to be more specific.

Mercury had left on a mission to Vacuo before she herself had decided to leave. It had been an impulse decision, but even when she tried to talk to him before he left she could tell he wouldn’t have listened to her.

It didn’t escape her that the group she now found herself a part of was heading to Vacuo as the next part of their plan to stop Salem. After the immortal was temporarily defeated at Atlas, it was expected that her next target would be Vacuo’s school, Shade.

Emerald couldn’t decide what would be worse; not seeing Mercury, and having to give up on reuniting with him, or running into him and having to face the person he had become.

“Hey, Em! We’ll be landing in Vacuo soon, and then we’re gonna take the bikes out to scope out the land and see how far we’ll have to ride to Shade. This Atlas airship can only take us so far.”

Emerald nodded at the peppy, red-haired team leader. It had taken a while, but the team trusted her, and she had begun to feel safe around them. She just desperately wished for one more person to be here with them.

The airship landed near a small outpost, and the team started to unload their stuff. Ruby, Yang and Emerald unloaded three motorcycles from the back and some bags filled with water, while the others grabbed their other stuff and started to look for a place to stay for the night.

“Okay. Me, Yang and Emerald will go scope out the territory for an hour or two while the rest of you look for a place in town to stay. Got it?”

Everyone nodded at Ruby and they separated. Emerald noticed an especially affectionate goodbye between Yang and Blake, but said nothing. 

The three headed out. They spent about a half hour riding around in the desert before Emerald started to question what they were doing out there. She loved riding the motorcycles, but there was nothing to see out here except endless sand. So of course it stood out to her when she saw a glint of silver on the horizon.

“You guys take a break. I’m gonna go check that out,” She shouted to the sisters riding behind her. They nodded and slowed down, while she sped up, desperate for any change of scenery among the hills of sand.

Finally, she came to a stop in front of a silver bike that looked old and broken down, but perfect for riding in the sand. It hovered slightly above the ground, erasing any friction from the harsh desert floor. There was a bag on the back with water and food, but no rider in sight.

“What on earth…?” She muttered, until she heard a voice that made her stop cold in her tracks.

“Miss me?”

She spun around, wanting to see the face that belonged to that voice. The voice that had been her only friend for years. The voice that had made her laugh even as the world was crumbling around them.

“Mercury?” She whispered.

He only grinned back at her, with a familiar smile that didn’t reach his eyes. At first, she was overcome with hope, that was quickly replaced by dread.

“What are you doing out here?”

He frowned. “I should be asking you the same thing. I’m the one Salem sent on assignment here. We didn’t get any word that you were being sent too. So why-“

“I don’t work for Salem anymore!” She snapped.

Mercury raised one eyebrow, suddenly understanding. “I see. So you finally joined that band of self-righteous huntsmen that calls themselves heroes.”

She crossed her arms in a defiant stance. “Yeah, I did. Decided it was a lot better than working for someone who’s trying to end the world.”

“So you really believe what that weirdo said?”

“Yeah, I did.” She tensed, readying herself for a fight. “So, what? Are you gonna fight me now or something?”

“Not if you surrender. Or turn back and run back to your new friends.”

Emerald snorted with laughter. “Yeah right. Like I would back down from a fight.”

“Well then, you’ve already lost,” he snarled.

Mercury kicked his leg and tried to hook it around hers to trip her. Attempting to dodge, Emerald jumped to the side, but that only gave him an opening to hit her on the side, throwing her off balance and sending the girl crashing to the desert floor.

She laid there for a second, attempting to catch her breath.

“Mercury, please don’t do this. You can come with me now. The people I went with are good people. You can trust them, and they’ll trust you eventually too.”

Mercury sighed. “How many times do I have to tell you, Emerald? I am where I am. I’m following orders. It’s time for you to accept that.”

“Do you remember,” she said, standing, “those days when you first joined up with us? Cinder left a lot, so we had a lot of free time, and I got us a little radio.” Emerald chuckled.

“You would sing along, even though you knew you were singing badly, and you did it because it made me laugh. I would always tell you to stop, but it was hard to believe me when I was barely getting my words out in between laughs. We cared about each other so much. I know if I had asked you to leave with me during those days, you would have.”

She took another, desperate look at the boy. 

“What happened, Merc? Why aren’t we like we used to be?”

“Well, the thing is…” he looked up at emerald for the first time, the picture of guilt and regret. “You never did ask me to leave, did you?”

And before anyone could react, he brought out a gun no one noticed he had and shot Emerald in the shoulder.


	2. chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which emerald and mercury are confronted with their pasts-and each other

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yay chapter two! decided to post this before v8 comes back and all my predictions are crushed

Oh, shit! I’m sorry Em, that was supposed to be a warning shot or something. You know I’m a terrible shot. God, where did I hit you?”

“It’s-It’s nothing, just my shoulder.” Emerald winced. “A warning shot? Seriously?”

“Yeah, I thought I could scare you off and we wouldn’t actually have to fight!” Mercury’s speaking was rushed as he desperately apologized for what he’d just done. “Em, I’m so sorry.”

Mercury rushed over to emerald and crouched at her side, speaking softly but fast in an effort to get his message out before her teammates found her.

“Listen, I’m sorry, I never wanted to fight you in the first place but if I hadn’t at least been able to say I tried Tyrian would’ve killed us both. I need you to listen to me, okay?”

Emerald nodded, trying to ignore the throbbing in her shoulder.

“Okay, good. Now listen, you have no idea how much I want to go with you. but I can’t. Not yet, anyway. If I could, I would run away right now.”

He smiled at her sadly, all the while tears filled his eyes.

“I can’t leave until I’m sure they won’t come after you.” He gently grabbed her hand and stared into her eyes to show exactly how much he meant what he said.

“Of course I remember those nights. I remember your laugh was one of the first happy sounds I heard. I remember how the world stopped when you sang along, because your voice was so beautiful. You told me once that you only sang when you were happy, and you hadn’t sung a single song since you were little.”

He stood up, and handed her a gun. “And now, you need to shoot me.”

“What?” She said, her voice strained.

“I need a reason to leave, and run back to where I’m staying with Tyrian. If you shoot me in the arm, and I can say that I got a hit on you, I think he’ll leave me alone. If I come back without a scratch, he’ll just get suspicious, and that’s the last thing we need right now.”

“Merc, I don’t know if I can-“

“I know you can. Because you have to.” He grinned at her, preparing for a shot that was soon to come. “And, Em? Maybe when I get back, you’ll feel like singing again. Yeah?”

“Okay, but Mercury...what changed your mind? I mean, two minutes ago you pointed a gun at me. You had no intention of doing any of this, and there was no one here to see the fight except us.”

He sighed, reluctantly looking back at her and asking, “You really want to know?”

She gave a quick nod.

“Okay. When I knocked you down, and you looked at me, it reminded me of how I looked when I was still living with my dad.”

Emerald took a sharp intake of breath as she realized what he meant.”

“I knew that expression on your face,, because it was the face I wore for years. That feeling of being betrayed by someone who was supposed to never hurt you, someone who was supposed to make you feel safe around them.

“Someone who was supposed to love you. But clearly wasn’t doing any of those things successfully.”

He took a deep breath before continuing his explanation. “You’re the one person I never wanted to hurt. But I did. I realize that now. I really am sorry, Em. Everything I’ve done to get us to this point was wrong. But you’ve gotta trust me now, okay? I’m just trying to make sure we both get out of this alive.”

She nodded. Raising the gun with a trembling hand, she pointed it at an area on his arm that would ensure his injury could be fixed. As a single tear rolled down her cheek, she took a deep breath…

And pulled the trigger.

“Gah!”

“Oh my god, Mercury, are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Wow, nice shot. Shit, that hurts.”

“Mercury-“

“I’m fine. You need to leave.”

“No, I’m not leaving you like this!”

“Emerald, go!” He shouted.

When she failed to turn and go, he looked at her, desperation pooling in his eyes. “Please.”

Finally, she got on the bike she had taken to that spot in the desert and went to find the rest of the team, whom she had left behind. True to form, she didn’t look back, or turn around to try and beg him to come with her.

However, she would be lying if she didn’t say that there were tears in her eyes as she turned to leave the person who had been her entire world for so long, the person she had left in search of a better one. 

————

“Emerald! Are you okay? We heard gunshots and then people talking and-oh god are you okay? What happened to your arm?” 

Ruby was speaking practically too fast for Emerald to keep up with her, especially through the growing pain in her arm.

“I’m fine. There was some guy out here looking for town and he had a faulty gun. It went off by accident and grazed my shoulder. I gave him directions.”

“Well,” Yang said, “I doubt it’ll come to this, but I know a good prosthetics guy.”

The joke fell flat. 

“Come on,” Ruby said, gesturing towards town. “We need to get you to a doctor.”

Emerald nodded. The other two started to ride away, but she hesitated.

Speaking to no one, she said “You promised you would come back.” She touched the winged earring that the others had noticed when she first got them, but didn’t know the true meaning of. “Keep that promise for once.”

And Emerald drove away, for once not knowing if everything would be okay, but nonetheless desperately hoping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yay you made it to the end of the chapter! here’s hoping emerald deserts salem soon

**Author's Note:**

> i’m so sorry   
> there will be a chapter two!


End file.
